This blog was created by the Purdue Beef Team as an educational forum for beef producers and Extension educators. It includes timely news, issues, and management tips that have the potential to affect the beef business and decision-making process. Opinions expressed in the news clips do not necessarily represent those of Purdue University or the beef industry.

Daily Archives: February 26, 2008

We can breed them black or red, horned or polled. We can breed them for growth, marbling, tenderness or milk production. But can we breed cattle to resist common diseases, respond to vaccination protocols and stay healthy?

The answer is on the way. Researchers, cattlemen and industry partners from across the U.S. and New Zealand met recently in Kansas City at the National Beef Cattle Evaluation Consortium (NBCEC) Cattle Health Symposium to create a national system for genetic selection for disease resistance in beef cattle.

Cattle producers hear it time after time: The lion’s share of production costs is related to nutrition. Producers who keep a close account of feed expenditures often wince at the fi nal tally. The smart ones keep looking for ways to shave the cost, while still providing adequate nutrition for their herds. A few producers might be willing to cut corners on things like … well, like salt and mineral, for instance.

What about salt, plain ol’ sodium chloride (NaCl)? After all, cattle seem to be able to get along without it, for a little while at least. Even if it was unintentional, plenty of producers have allowed their cattle to go without salt for a day or two, or maybe longer.

The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) has hired two new field representatives for the High Plains and the Southeastern United States. Both began serving those regions at the end of January.

Nate Jeager will serve NCBA affiliates and members in the Southeast region of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina and Florida. He will be based in Birmingham, Ala. Jeager grew up on a cattle operation, and comes to NCBA with four years of valuable industry experience with Laura’s Lean Beef and AgInfoLink. He holds a master’s degree in agriculture from Colorado State University in the Beef Industry Leadership program.

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Posted onFebruary 26, 2008|Comments Off on Veteran Tazewell extension agent calling it a career

Veteran Tazewell extension agent calling it a career

Bill Archer

Bluefield Daily Telegraph

When this coming Friday rolls around, Mike Harris won’t have anywhere he will have to be at 8 a.m.

“It seems like all of my life, I’ve had to be somewhere every day at 8 a.m.,” Harris, the 23-year veteran extension agent of the Virginia Tech Extension office in Tazewell said. “This Friday, I can sit in the house until 11 a.m., if I want to. I don’t have to go anywhere.”

Harris, 59, has spent a lifetime helping farmers, serving his country, supporting his community and learning how to read the subtle signs of seasonal and cyclical changes in the rhythms of the agricultural universe, and to figure out how farmers can survive those changes.

The recall of 143 million pounds of beef raises disturbing questions about the safety of this nation’s food supply.

Inspectors for the U.S. Department of Agriculture are supposed to patrol the ramps and pens of slaughterhouses, watching for problems such as sick and “downer,” or non-ambulatory, cattle that could pass on diseases. In fact, eight on-site inspectors worked at Westland/Hallmark Meat Co. of Chino, Calif., the target of the USDA recall, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Yet it took an animal-rights group, the Humane Society of the United States, to make an undercover video showing apparently sick cows being dragged, prodded and otherwise tortured into pens for slaughter.

The horrific video of animal cruelty at a California slaughter plant spurred the largest beef recall in U.S. history this month.

The clandestine video was released by the Humane Society of the United States and showed workers at the plant hitting and kicking sick and injured cattle and even using forklifts to get the animals on their feet.

The plant workers’ actions were disturbing to be sure and in direct violation of USDA policies, which aim to keep meat from downer cows (those that can’t stand up and walk on their own) from being introduced to the food supply.

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Posted onFebruary 26, 2008|Comments Off on Proper Protein Feeding Important to Herd Health

Proper Protein Feeding Important to Herd Health

by: Stephen B. Blezinger, Ph.D, PAS

Part 2

A while back we reviewed protein nutrition in cattle and discussed at length individual protein components. The following is the second part of this series and is well-timed given the AI and Herd Bull topic for this issue. Protein is an extremely important part of the breeding program for both cows and bulls. Artificial Insemination programs require feeding programs properly balanced for all nutrients with protein and protein components a very major part of this. The following discussion considers a variety of issues as related to protein nutrition in these breeding cattle.

In the previous discussion of protein in cattle, we discussed crude and degradable protein (protein that is available to the rumen bacteria and is readily broken down in the rumen). These forms of protein make up a very large portion of the animal’s total protein intake and sources include soybean meal, cottonseed meal, corn gluten feed, whole cottonseed, urea (protein equivalent).